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I’ve always updated macOS without issues, but this time with Tahoe, I’m disappointed. The wasted space makes everything look ugly. What were the designers thinking? And the two large radii at the top of apps? Kindergarten? Preschool? This is hard to avoid in Wails Go to code via css and they just do it ? Who needs two sets of fields for a button that’s easily recognizable via icon only?

I could live with the icons, but the oversized bars are a waste of space, especially on the 13-inch MBA M2. Even on my 34-inch screen, I’d feel the same. Every line of display counts. Safari’s decision to hide the oversized header bar in full-screen mode doesn’t help either.

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It's very ugly, and this weekend I'm rolling back - dialogue boxes are not obvious, the glass effect is like a bad movie that over uses CGI...

I've been using Apple since I was donated a LCIII in 1996, and if they are going in this direction, I'm seriously considering what happens when this machine gets towards it's end date.

I've seen better looking linux GUI environments IMO.
 
It might run ok on a higher level machine (M2, M3, M4) but my M1 iMac has slowed down significantly. Web pages load much slower, apps open slower, everything just seems delayed. It;s not quick and snappy like it was with previous versions. Plus, I hate the look of it. I[m 70 and my eyes need much better contrast and color differences. Tahoe seems very bland and things all tend to run together visually.

I'm probably going to downgrade back to Sequoia.
 
I have hit Apple´s Character Limit so i Post it here again:

Dear Apple Design Team,

After 40 years as a Mac user, macOS Tahoe is the first update I refuse to install. I'm staying on Sequoia.


The design decisions in Tahoe are baffling. The excessively large corner radii on app windows make the title bars unnecessarily tall and bulky. Combined with the new bordered outlines around icon buttons, the interface looks bloated and childish.

These thick borders around what were perfectly recognizable icons add nothing but visual clutter and wasted space. On my 13-inch MacBook Air M2, this padding is particularly egregious. Even on my 34-inch display, I resent losing screen real estate to these oversized UI elements.

Every line of display matters when you're working. The bulky window frames and padded toolbars in Tahoe sacrifice functionality for a design aesthetic that feels more appropriate for a children's learning app than a professional operating system.

All my Macs will remain on Sequoia (15.7) indefinitely until Apple either:

  • Offers a compact/professional UI mode
  • Reduces the excessive corner radii and padding
  • Removes the unnecessary borders around icon buttons
Please give users the option to choose efficient, professional interface density over this wasteful design.

A disappointed 40-year Mac veteran
 
I'm happy with the performance, like the improved search, but it is butt ugly. The double rounded corners, all the empty space in music, just make it look cheap. The Liquid Glass is ok. I don't mind it but not impressed either.
 
I agree. Since I've run with Reduce Transparency on for many releases now leaving that on for Tahoe the general feel isn't all that different from the previous releases. And while I like some of the new features the overall release is gawd awful ugly. Unlike a lot of macOS users I normally don't really care all that much about the aesthetics, shapes, colors etc but what the did in Tahoe is hideous.

I've downloaded the Sequoia installer and revert this weekend. I'll give up the new features to use something that doesn't make me want to vomit every time I look at it.
 
I installed macOS Tahoe on my M4 Mac mini to see what all the fuss is about. The installation went smooth and runs great on an M4 Mac. But based on first impressions macOS Tahoe is OK and the Liquid Glass is a little blasé and unimpressive. It didn’t WOW me.
 
I have hit Apple´s Character Limit so i Post it here again:

Dear Apple Design Team,

After 40 years as a Mac user, macOS Tahoe is the first update I refuse to install. I'm staying on Sequoia.


The design decisions in Tahoe are baffling. The excessively large corner radii on app windows make the title bars unnecessarily tall and bulky. Combined with the new bordered outlines around icon buttons, the interface looks bloated and childish.

These thick borders around what were perfectly recognizable icons add nothing but visual clutter and wasted space. On my 13-inch MacBook Air M2, this padding is particularly egregious. Even on my 34-inch display, I resent losing screen real estate to these oversized UI elements.

Every line of display matters when you're working. The bulky window frames and padded toolbars in Tahoe sacrifice functionality for a design aesthetic that feels more appropriate for a children's learning app than a professional operating system.

All my Macs will remain on Sequoia (15.7) indefinitely until Apple either:

  • Offers a compact/professional UI mode
  • Reduces the excessive corner radii and padding
  • Removes the unnecessary borders around icon buttons
Please give users the option to choose efficient, professional interface density over this wasteful design.

A disappointed 40-year Mac veteran
I heard Tim is now in-charge of design..

I can just see the conversation in the Apple Office:

Tim: What's happening? Why all of the complains. I thought you said this is the greatest and users are going to like it? (Tim never saw anything before they put it out. He was too busy hugging stuff animals)

Marketing: Well, I thought we would go after the next generation kids with the economy Mac to get into schools again.

Tim: Ok, I'll take over design....


Yeah, that will fix it Tim...
 
I'm generally fine with Liquid glass. And I'm generally fine with the latest updates on my phone. But it's weird stuff in MacOS like if I'm running windows full size (a very regular occurrence as I often don't want full fullscreen so I keep menus handy, etc), then the top bar being clear just gives me a weird thin strip of desktop image with the menu on harder to read. It's just odd. So I turned that non-transparent immediately. But then you have these great big ugly rounded corners then show chunks of desktop through, and they're just weird wastes of space.

What is this, MacOS Fisher-Price, my first OS?

It's pretty clear that these were inspired by Vision Pro OS, fine, but then they were not actually optimised for their final use-case. It's quite apparent that the design language for a phone/touch OS was FORCED into MacOS regardless of how well it actually worked, with no tweaks to make it really fit nicely.

So no, I don't have much of a problem with liquid glass itself, but I do with space-wasting florishes and rounded stuff that may make some sense on a finger-operated OS where it's generally not windowed apps, but makes no sense and crosses the line from what I'd say is arguably devisive, to what I deem just straight up ugly and ill-concieved.

Poor show Apple. Make the best UI you can for the Mac, not a second rate one because you insist on forcing a round peg into a square hole. Consistency is great, but not when it's at the expensive of usefulness and just makes it ugly (just like system settings - where I still can't find some stuff very easily a few years after the change).

I've seen various stuff these days where designers float their buttons in nearer the middle of the screen, away from the edge. There's zero point me being able to see a tiny strip of my document/picture/map/whatever outside the buttons if it's at the expense of the amount of that thing I want to see in the main central screen area. If your fat fingers will hit the screen edge more than the button on a touch OS, fine, move them in a bit, but any more than necessary and it's just a waste of screen real estate.
 
OS Tahoe seems faster, but is very ugly. Something has gone seriously wrong with Apple design.
I'm on a 2020 iMac and it's running faster and smoother than when it was new. The fans never come on anymore.

Since this is probably the last update, it's a good place to stop.

I'm getting used to the looks and not having Launchpad just like I had to get used to the newer system settings.
 
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HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS?
ever since i installed tahoe on my M2pro MBP, i've lost about 80GB of storage.
down from 260 to about 180?

i deleted my daily local snapshots and did a new backup to my time capsule.
that got a lot of it back but the next morning it was gone again.
I’ve had the opposite; gained around 200gb and can’t seem to track where. Must be caches.
 
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the colors are together more, there is more iconic graphic on the lower thingeee that appears when ya' slide over.
this is a change..... nothing else.....as the performance seems great!
best new is after upgrading, that annoying red arrow dot won't bother that Mac or yourself anymore*!
win win!
*until sept 2026
 
HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS?
ever since i installed tahoe on my M2pro MBP, i've lost about 80GB of storage.
down from 260 to about 180?

i deleted my daily local snapshots and did a new backup to my time capsule.
that got a lot of it back but the next morning it was gone again.
 
I've just finished installing Tahoe on my Mac mini M4 and am wondering why my Mac has turned into Windows 11 all of a sudden!!

I don't mind it, really. In fact I like the Windows-style application button. But without the solid bar at the top it doesn't feel like I'm using a Mac anymore.
 
Its so ugly, I'm tempted to go back to the original OS that had a working dock, from 1987 - also had anti aliased fonts, and only needed 4MB of memory to be efficient...


On a more serious note - how do I roll back to 15?
 

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I’ve always updated macOS without issues, but this time with Tahoe, I’m disappointed. The wasted space makes everything look ugly. What were the designers thinking? And the two large radii at the top of apps? Kindergarten? Preschool? This is hard to avoid in Wails Go to code via css and they just do it ? Who needs two sets of fields for a button that’s easily recognizable via icon only?

I could live with the icons, but the oversized bars are a waste of space, especially on the 13-inch MBA M2. Even on my 34-inch screen, I’d feel the same. Every line of display counts. Safari’s decision to hide the oversized header bar in full-screen mode doesn’t help either.

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My MacBook Pro update to Tahoe is a disaster! My Finder is completely stuffed and every folder I open is exactly the same as any other folder. I have no idea how to correct this if I could go back a version I would but that would mean losing everything I've got on my current computer I assume.
 
I noticed the same storage weirdness some of you mentioned. Tahoe ate up ~60GB on my MBP after install. A bunch of it turned out to be system data and caches. Clearing local snapshots helped, but it creeps back.
 
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